LONDON TRANSPORT T CLASS

AEC Regal single-deckers

This page prepared by Ian Smith,
created 9th June 1999, updated 29th June 2016.

The General buses: T 1-37, 39-50, 156 (Total 50)

Construction

The chassis were mostly AEC Regal 662, with an A140 six cylinder OHC petrol engine,
(Chassis numbers 662028 to 662064).

The bodies were L.G.O.C. (Chiswick-built) rear entrance, 6 bay, 29 seaters,
26ft long x 7ft 6in wide. The doorway occupied the last bay on the nearside,
with a step up into the saloon. A subsidiary step was bracketed below the platform.

T43 was an exception: it had an experimental AEC 8-cylinder engine.
Its body (10276) was built 6in shorter, (losing it from the bay over the rear wheels)
to allow for the longer engine.
It was rebuilt with a normal engine in December 1930,
when it also swapped bodies with T10.
But the chassis was reduced in length by six inches (so as not to carry around six inches of air between engine and bulkhead)
When the buses were coded in 1935 T43 was coded as 2T2,
whereas the others were 1T1.
T10, of course, was now only 25ft 6in long, (but coded 1T1),
and remained that way through subsequent overhauls.

T38 was a different beast altogether: this chassis was used to make a prototype for the Greenline "coaches".
To make up the numbers of buses,
T156 was bodied as a 1T1 bus during the production of the Greenline 7T7s.

T31, restored to original body configuration, looks superb at Cobham Bus Museum in September 1997.
Photos by Ian Smith

Into service

The Regals appeared for the LGOC in December 1929 and January 1930.
The first ten went to Romford, accompanying new STs for a virtual re-stock.
The others displaced elderly K-class single deckers,
plus single-decker S-types at Sutton.
This was a major step forward in passenger comfort!

Once they had settled, one was called in from each of Nunhead, Sutton and Holloway
in order to stock a competitive service at Cricklewood,
to draw passengers from a Birch-operated service.

Garages

Routes

Buses displaced

RD Romford

G1 Collier Row - Cranham

K

RD Romford

G5 Romford - Hornchurch

K

RD Romford

187 Chadwell Heath - Harold Wood

K

W Cricklewood

104 Golders Green Stn - Burnt Oak

K

CR Crayford

99C, Erith - Crayford - Dartford

K

AH Nunhead

621 Peckham - Nunhead - Peckham

K

J Holloway

110 Golders Green - Finsbury Park

K

A Sutton

113 Banstead -

S

W Cricklewood

121E

new route

Rebuild to forward entrance

T27 was experimentally rebuilt at overhaul in December 1930
with an open doorway at the front of the saloon,
behind the front wheel, instead of the original rear platform.
The other Central Area buses were rebuilt the same way during overhaul between 1933 and 1935.

The 45 Central Area buses went about their duties:
there were not very many Central routes requiring single deckers,
and they kept company with the 5Q5s and LTLs.
They quickly became migrants, changing garages on a frequent basis, particularly at the annual overhauls.
In some cases they were used to open up new suburban routes as London sprawled outwards,
such as the 235 (Croydon - Selsdon), and the 232 (Beckenham Junction - Coney Hall).

London Transport

All the 1T1s were taken over by London Transport in July 1933, either from the LGOC or the LGCS.

Transfer to the Country

The rebuilds did not include the three (T15, 21, 26) that were allocated to Crayford for the 99C.
These were transferred to East Surrey with that garage in April 1931. Route 199A at Crayford also required Regals,
so T25 from Cricklewood and T35 from Holloway were sent to join them at East Surrey.
They never were rebuilt into forward entrance format (although T26 had a substantial rebuild by Chiswick in 1936).
They were transferred to Slough in 1935, after which they were allocated to all sorts of places alongside the similar ex-East Surrey Ts.
Withdrawal came in 1938-1939, with T35 sold for further service with Venture of Basingstoke, and T26 going to the War Department.
T21 narrowly escaped destruction by bombing at Bull Yard (unlike T15), but was resurrected and returned to duty at a variety of garages until 1942.
T25 was sold for scrap in 1939.

Wartime

November 1940 saw nine loaned to the Country Area, two to Windsor, four to High Wycombe,
three to Hertford. Five more went in 1942, one to Watford (Leavesden Rd), one to Amersham, and three to Hertford.
All remained in red livery, and gradually returned to the Central Area, the last coming back in January 1944.

Three suffered from the shortage of red and white paints at overhaul during the winter of 1942-3,
and wore indian red and primrose livery until their next overhaul.

Many others were converted to perimeter seating,
with twenty-nine inwards-facing seats: sixteen offside, thirteen nearside.
This allowed twenty standing passengers to be carried, greatly increasing peak capacity.
This arrangement lasted for some time after the war, when the fleet was suffering severe capacity problems.
Quite a few continued perimeter seating until 1949 - some until withdrawal.

Postwar life-extension

The ravages of war, which included lack of regular skilled overhauls,
left the 1T1s in a fairly life expired state,
as far as their bodies were concerned.
But they had to soldier on:
the demands of post-war traffic increases
and the lack of single-deckers in the austerity programmes
meant that the strapping came out in plenty on the 1T1 bodies.
The purchase of the Leyland TDs, and the postwar 14T12 Regals
brought some respite, but there was still a job for the 1T1s:
they were the only proper-sized buses
allowed over the weight-restricted bridge at Walton-on-Thames.
Kingston - operated routes 218 and 264 went that way.

So eighteen of the 1T1s were sent to Marshalls of Cambridge
for body rebuilds, and emerged looking superb,
in red livery with narrow cream lining.
Gone was the Chiswick cummerbund, and the rubbing strakes on side and rear.
New were smooth panels from window to skirt. The doorless front entrance was retained,
and a route stencil holder mounted above it.
The rebuilds also received diesel engines from scrap STLs.
Eight others, unrebuilt, also received diesel engines
and shared the Kingston duties in their red, white and brown colours.
They also appeared on other Kingston routes alongside their later cousins.

Garages

Routes

K Kingston

218 Kingston - Esher - Walton - Staines

K Kingston

264 Kingston - Hampton Court - Walton - Hersham Green

The end came in 1953,
when a temporary replacement bridge at Walton
allowed their replacement by 10T10s.

But even then one survived: T31 became an instruction unit at Chiswick,
and stayed on training duties until October 1956.
It was then sold by London Transport direct into preservation.
T31 has since been rebuilt to original rear-entrance configuration,
and repainted in original General livery style.
It is actively preserved at Cobham Bus Museum.

T31 at Cobham Open Day, April 1998.

T31 occasionally comes out in public, such as on the 2008 Worcester Park Running Day,
when it operated on the 213, including visits to Sutton Garage, where it looked right at home among the modern rolling stock.